City To Restore Funding To Homeless Shelter

JENNA CARLESSO, jcarlesso@courant.com

HARTFORD — Mayor Pedro Segarra's office said Friday that the city will restore funding for a homeless shelter whose allocation was cut during the budget process.

In an effort to balance Hartford's budget, the city in May made a $605,000 cut to the health and human services department. A $100,000 grant to Marshall House, a homeless shelter run by the Salvation Army on South Marshall Street, was lost as part of that reduction, city officials said.

The city money triggers a matching grant of $100,000 from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, which together covers the bulk of Marshall House's $270,000 annual budget, shelter representatives said. If the money wasn't replaced by Sept. 30, when the HFPG grant runs out, the shelter would have had to close its doors.

The shelter is one of two in Hartford that takes women and children; the other is the South Park Inn.

Maribel La Luz, Segarra's communications director, said Friday that the management and budget office was exploring different areas from which it could take the $100,000 to offset the reduction. Segarra plans to submit a proposal for the transfer to the city council in September, she said.

The health and human services department spends $774,000 annually services for the homeless, city officials said. Marshall House was awarded $100,000 in 2012-13 and 2013-14 through the department's grant program. This is the third year the shelter will receive funds.

La Luz pointed out that the city's homeless population is not just Hartford residents — about 40 percent come from outside the city.

"We provide services for individuals across the state. Nobody wants to cut these types of services," she said. "This is part of the difficult decision we face every fiscal year."